New Orleans attack: Truck driver was ISIS member who acted alone, FBI says

The FBI said Thursday they now believe a U.S. citizen and Army veteran who drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans, killing 14 people, acted alone and was a member of the Islamic State terrorist group.

Investigators said they obtained surveillance footage showing the driver placing two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in coolers along the city’s famed Bourbon Street about two hours before he steered around a police blockade and slammed into pedestrians. He was then shot dead by police.

“This was an act of terrorism,” Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, told reporters. “It was premeditated and an evil act.”

U.S. President Joe Biden, who met with his Homeland Security team to discuss the attack, said Thursday he learned the driver had a remote detonator wired to detonate the devices he planted, citing investigators.

Law enforcement previously said they believed additional people may have been involved in the attack, based on footage of individuals interacting with the IEDs on Bourbon Street. Investigators later determined those people were simply looking inside the coolers and had no knowledge of the driver’s intentions, Raia said.

“We do not assess that anyone else was involved in this attack except for Shamsud-Din Jabbar,” Raia said.

2:36 ‘This is evil’: Driver rams into New Orleans crowd, killing at least 15

Investigators who searched the driver’s home and devices found that Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen from Texas, posted videos to social media hours before the attack. In the videos, he said he had joined the Islamic State before last summer, and also provided a will and testament, Raia said.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

In another video, Raia said Jabbar explained his original intent was to harm family and friends, but worried subsequent news coverage would not focus on the “war between the believers and the disbelievers.”

The FBI believes Jabbar specifically targeted Bourbon Street but it was not yet clear exactly why.

“He was 100 per cent inspired by ISIS,” he added.

Authorities recovered a black flag of the Islamic State in the truck used in Wednesday’s attack. Raia said the two IEDs believed to have been planted by Jabbar near the scene were the only ones that were functional, and that reports of additional active explosive devices inside or near the truck were later deemed inaccurate.

The FBI also said there appeared to be no link between the attack in New Orleans and an incident in Las Vegas on the same day, in which a Tesla Cybertruck packed with gasoline canisters and large firework mortars exploded in flames outside the Trump International Hotel, just weeks before U.S. president-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.

Authorities clarified the 15 total fatalities reported by the New Orleans coroner Wednesday evening included Jabbar, who was killed by police after he opened fire on officers.

The rampage turned festive Bourbon Street into a macabre scene of maimed victims, bloodied bodies and pedestrians fleeing for safety inside nightclubs and restaurants. In addition to the dead, dozens of people were hurt. A college football playoff game at the nearby Superdome was postponed until Thursday.

New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell said Bourbon Street was being reopened ahead of the game, which will see additional security. The FBI said there was no additional threat to the public.

“The city of New Orleans, we’re resilient,” Cantrell told reporters.

A moment of silence was held at the opening of the Sugar Bowl game at the city’s Superdome arena, followed by the national anthem.

Officials fanned out to serve search warrants and spent hours at a Houston-area home thought to be connected to the investigation. Raia said Jabbar rented the truck used in the attack in Houston on Tuesday and drove it to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve.

As of Thursday morning, no additional arrests were known to have been made.

Local officials, meanwhile, faced more questions about security protocols in the city leading up to the attack, the latest example of a vehicle being used as a weapon to carry out mass violence.

Jabbar drove a rented pickup truck onto a sidewalk, going around a police car that was positioned to block vehicular traffic, authorities said. A barrier system meant to prevent vehicle attacks was being repaired in preparation for the Super Bowl, which New Orleans is set to host next month.

The driver “defeated” safety measures in place to protect pedestrians and was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said Wednesday.

Public records showed Jabbar worked in real estate in Houston. In a promotional video posted four years ago, Jabbar described himself as born and raised in Beaumont, a city about 130 km east of Houston.

3:39 Biden says investigators looking for links between New Orleans ramming attack, Las Vegas cybertruck incident

Jabbar was in the regular Army from March 2007 until January 2015 and then in the Army Reserve from January 2015 until July 2020, an Army spokesperson said. He deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010 and held the rank of staff sergeant at the end of service.

FBI officials have repeatedly warned about an elevated international terrorism threat due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. In the last year, the agency has disrupted other potential attacks, including in October when it arrested an Afghan man in Oklahoma for an alleged Election Day plot targeting large crowds.

Meanwhile, authorities in other U.S. cities said they had boosted security, including at Trump Tower and Times Square in New York City, adding that there were no immediate threats.

In Washington, police also said they had increased their presence as the capital prepares to host three major events this month: Congress’ Jan. 6 certification of Trump’s presidential election win, the Jan. 9 state funeral for former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, and Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

—With files from the Associated Press and Reuters